The Bartender's Tale

Ivan Doig

Bartender and single father Tom Harry owns The Medicine Lodge, a popular watering hole in Gros Ventre, Montana. His 12-year-old son, Rusty, lives with him at the bar after his mother skipped out of town years ago. It’s 1960, and change is afoot when a woman named Proxy, a taxi driver from Tom’s past, shows up with her 21-year-old daughter, Francine. Is Francine Tom’s daughter? And why, Rusty wonders, are adults so confusing? A warmhearted, old-fashioned story about fathers, sons, and growing up from the author of Work Song (2010).